Toxicological implications of dichlorvos on thanatomicrobiome profiles and abundance for post mortem investigations

This research studied the bacterial and fungal microbial ecologies on dichlorvos-treated carrions and their effects on post-mortem microbial clock for post-mortem interval estimation (PMI) during death investigations. Carrion soil, skin, oral and rectal samples were aseptically collected, cultured and microbes isolated from both dichlorvos-treated and control pig (Sus scrofa, Linnaeus) carrions at the fresh, early and advanced stages of decomposition. The microbes were morphologically identified using microscopy and biochemical characteristics of catalase, oxidase, indole and citrate utilization. A total of seven bacterial species (Bacillus sp., Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas sp., Staphylococcus sp., Enterobacter sp., Clostridium sp. and Enterococcus sp.) and two fungal species (Aspergillus sp. and Fusarium sp.) were isolated and identified from both carrion groups. Lesser microbial community abundance of 26 (46.43%) was recorded from the dichlorvos-treated carrions when compared with the control carrions with higher abundance of 30 (53.57 %). Bacillus sp. and Aspergillus sp. were the dominant bacteria and fungi from the dichlorvos-treated and control carrions respectively. Also, there was more microbial fauna abundance from the carrion soil samples of both carrion groups. The study provided good comparative information between the microbiome identities and successions on dichlorvos-treated and control carrions that can aid the resolution of medico-legal cases.